Salon owner: tanning debate should be more about regulations, less about limitations

March 10, 2013

CHARLESTON - Debate remains between tanning salons and cancer prevention advocates regarding the dangers of tanning beds and their links to skin cancer. On one hand, tanning beds have been listed as carcinogenic by the World Health Organization. On the other hand, salons say responsible tanning won't result in damage, such as severe burns, that can cause cancer.

Proposed legislation, HB2768, includes a number of suggested regulations relating to tanning salons, such as requiring tanning salons to register with local boards of health and post warning signs about "the dangers inherent in the use of a tanning device."

Requiring that no person under the age of 18 be permitted to use tanning salons is a provision organizations like the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network are pushing legislators to support. Juliana Frederick, grassroots organizer of the Morgantown ACSCAN office, said younger people are more at risk for melanoma the more regularly they tan.

Article Photos

Journal photo by Rachel Molenda

Katie Stutler, an employee at Indian Sun and Silver, cleans a tanning bed Saturday at the Martinsburg salon. Owner Judy Wright said tanning bed legislation should focus more on inspections and regulations of salons themselves, and less on limiting access to clients based on age.

Journal photo by Rachel Molenda

Judy Wright, owner of Indian Sun and Silver, serves a client Saturday at the Martinsburg salon. Wright, who has been running the salon for eight years, said she has imposed her own age restrictions on tanning despite there being no state law mandating it.

"Melanoma is the second most common cancer for 15- to 29-year-olds and the most common form of cancer for young adults, ages 25 to 29," Frederick said.

Frederick called cancer study results relating to melanoma "staggering," citing a statistic that said the use of tanning beds before the age of 35 increases a person's risk for melanoma by 75 percent.

"I think there's this misconception that tanning beds are not dangerous, and they are," Frederick said.

Tanning salons are scapegoats, according to Judy Wright, owner of Indian Sun and Silver in Martinsburg.

Wright said her salon is a certified Smart Tan facility, which takes into consideration different skin types when deciding how long and at what intensity clients should tan. While there is no current law that states age limits on tanning, Wright said she has introduced her own policies.

"I think parents have a right to know what their child's doing," Wright said. "And I think they also have a right to know how we run our salon and what we're going to be doing to their child's skin."

Indian Sun and Silver allows those who are older than 17 to tan without parental consent. Those ages 15 to 17 must be given consent by a parent or guardian. Teenagers under 15 are required to have the consent of their parent or guardian, in addition to being accompanied by him or her.

Del. Stephen Skinner, D-Jefferson, said his co-sponsorship of the bill was not about adults, but due to concern regarding early tanning.

"We need to make sure that we're protecting kids from the harmful affects of tanning beds," Skinner said.

The bill, which holds bipartisan support in both the House and Senate, according to Skinner and Frederick, is currently under review by the House committee on health and human resources.

This type of legislation was also introduced last year, Frederick said, but died in the House judiciary committee.

While Wright said she doesn't want "tanning police," she raised questions about why salons aren't inspected or regulated in the same way that hair and nail salons are.

"No one ever walks in any of these tanning salons and regulates how they clean their equipment or how much time they're giving (customers)," Wright said.

Wright said lawmakers should focus on the education of tanning salon staff, as well as responsible and sanitary salons.